All posts tagged Poetry

A lot of writers struggle with thoughts of self-doubt. Write a poem about that voice in your mind that questions if you’re good enough. Personify it, turn it into a villain, if you like. Where does this voice come from? How do you fight it? However much space you give to self-doubt in the poem though don’t let it have the final word. Save the end of the poem for feelings of hope, confidence, and determination. After all, as much as doubt plagues you, you wrote the poem.

Write a poem about putting yourself first. Does doing this mean inconveniencing someone else? Is it worth putting your needs first if it means hurting others? I feel like too many people tend to get annoyed when doing something for myself means saying no to them. If this is something you experience frequently too, write in your poem the difference between taking time for yourself and being selfish with your time. Do these people have any reasonable claim to your time?

Get out the crystal ball and tarot cards because we’re looking into the future today! Write a poem full of predictions for the future. Will you be predicting your personal future? If so, what do you see for yourself 5, 10, 15 years down the road? Or do you feel like making predictions for things outside of yourself? What is the future of your house, town, state, country or the world? Don’t pin yourself down to any single future if you don’t want. Let your poem explore as many imagined futures as you desire.

Write a poem in which you give different parts of your body different personalities. Create conflict between them. Which organs side with which? Give them motivations based on different activities from your day to day life. Maybe your eyes and tongue team up to trick your brain into eating too much for your stomach to handle. Maybe your feet are rivals always trying to trip each other up. Have fun with it.

Today I want you to write a poem from the perspective of something that is usually overlooked or not well loved. What does it feel like to be this thing? Personify it and tell us about who your pocket lint really is. Or give us the story of the magazine at the back of the rack. Whatever overlooked object you choose to inhabit, does it like going unnoticed or does it long for attention?

Write a poem about winter. How do you feel about winter? I’ve always lived in Florida, and so snow is a rare sight for me. I’ve longed for real winters for a while now, despite everyone trying to tell me how awful it is. Are you like me welcoming the cold season or do you hate the cold and wish for it to pass quickly? Whichever it is, make sure that shows through in your poem.

Write a poem that discusses the value of names. Do you feel strongly that naming things is important? Or does a rose by any other name still smell as sweet for you? In some magical stories knowing someone’s true name gives you power over them. In others, your given name can determine your destiny. Do you put any stock in these ideas? Are there other myths about names that you will consider in your poem?

Are you the type of person who makes decisions easily or who struggles with even small decisions? Write a poem about the difficulty in making decisions. Even if you don’t personally have much trouble making decisions try to empathize and imagine what it is like. Think about the anxiety that comes with the wrong choice. Are other people involved in the decision? How does that change things?

Write a poem about the most recent experience you had that turned out better than expected. What was the event or experience? What had you been expecting? How did it differ from expectations? Was it dramatically better than you thought it would be? Like were you dreading going to some social gathering only to be surprised that there were some cool people there or even better a really friendly cat? Whatever it was put us in the experience and show us how much better it was than you anticipated.

Are you ever taken by an urge so suddenly that you are already acting on it before you notice it interrupted something else? I call it the “drop everything” urge and I love it when I’m dropping everything to write. It isn’t always for such great things though. Write a poem about an urge this strong and sudden. Is it a good or bad urge in your poem?